Florida horses are big hits in Calder slam

MIAMI GARDENS — It was a good day for the home team at Calder's final Grand Slam Saturday. Only a neck and the class of Rutherienne kept it from being a grand slam day.

South Florida-based horses won the first three of the four $100,000 stakes. The string ended when Rutherienne ran down Calder-based Pretoria Light in deep stretch to capture the Grade 3 Frances A. Genter stakes. Pretoria Light, allowed to get away at 18-1 despite coming into the race off a win in a Calder stakes, held on to dead-heat fast-closing Sweet Ransom for second.

"[Pretoria Light] was tough to catch the way she went out on the lead," said Rene Douglas, rider of the 13-10 favorite. "We had good position down the backside and when I stepped on the gas, she went right between horses. Then we had to work hard to catch the leader."

Rutherienne is not a stranger to South Florida. She won her first two starts at Calder last fall before heading out of town for a campaign highlighted by a triumph in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. The Genter, at 7 1/2 furlongs the shortest distance the stretch-running turf specialist has attempted, was her eighth win in 10 career starts.

Christophe Clement, who trains the winner, also was in the winner's circle for the preceding race, the Grade 3 Stage Door Betty, as his Bayou's Lassie took advantage of an ideal stalking trip to win by a neck over Amazing Speed. The latter set all the pace, fighting off several challenges before Bayou's Lassie, the 2-1 favorite who was allowed to sit just behind the leaders by Elvis Trujillo, outfought her to the wire.

Cher Ami started the ball rolling for the local horses with scorching early fractions in the 7-furlong Chaposa Springs. Ariel Smith took her right to the front, getting a quarter-mile in 21 3/5 seconds and a half in 44.2. By that point she had opened a four-length lead, which she lengthened to 5 3/4 as she coasted home.

Cher Ami, sent away at 2-1, is "so fast it's scary," her happy trainer Larry Bates said in the winner's circle. The way she dominated the Chaposa Springs encouraged Bates to say he is considering taking her to California for the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint on Jan. 26.

Closers dominated the Pete Axthelm with Fearless Eagle giving trainer Eddie Plesa his third win in the 7 1/2-furlong turf race named for the late author and TV personality.

Longshots A Bit of Madness and De Lucia dueled each other into the ground on the front end with 8-5 favorite Sleeping Indian seemingly in an advantageous spot just behind them. But Sleeping Indian, who had won his first three tries on the turf for Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkins, had nothing left by the time the field hit the stretch.

Eddie Castro, who had been biding his time in mid-pack, got first run on the field with 12-1 Fearless Eagle, who surged past the tiring pace-setters to the lead just before the eighth pole and held off hard-charging Buffalo Man by a half-length.

"We basically got a perfect trip," Castro said. "Going down the backstretch, we were in the clear. I just waited until we turned for home, then turned him loose."